Scott Mendelson
, ContributorI cover the film industry.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

Walt Disney

'Beauty and the Beast'

Walt Disney's Beauty and the Beast is still going strong in its sixth day of worldwide release. The Emma Watson/Dan Stevens vehicle earned another $11.4 million on Wednesday, which is a drop of 36% from yesterday. That brings the film's six-day cume to $217.5m. It has already passed the $201m total of Cinderella, which makes me a little weepy as I really liked Cinderella. But I digress.

In terms of top Wednesday grosses, the Disney tentpole has to contend with films that opened on a Tuesday or a Wednesday. Among all Wednesday totals, Beauty and the Beast ranks 68th. But among non-opening (or non-day 2) Wednesdays, it ranks 36th. For what it's worth, the film's Wednesday was behind only The Passion of the Christ's $26.55m opening day among pre-summer Wednesday grosses. It is ahead of The Passion of the Christ's second Wednesday ($8.4m) and the day-six grosses of Furious 7 ($9.1m), Batman v. Superman ($8.1m) and The Hunger Games ($8.05m).

In terms of Tuesday-to-Wednesday drops, the 36% figure is a little steep compared to Finding Dory (-22%), Minions (-33%), Toy Story 3 (-11%) and Inside Out (28%). But that's (again) arguably an evening out from the biggish Monday drop and the huge Tuesday jump. Besides, while the prior Disney live-action fairy tales had mostly smaller Wednesday declines (between 15% and 27%), The Jungle Book dropped 34% on its first Wednesday. Anything resembling legs like The Jungle Book (which debuted with around 59% of Beauty's Fri-Sun opening) is cause for celebration.

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We should see around $10.5 million for today giving the film a $228m week-long domestic cume. If, and this is a BIG if, Beauty and the Beast continues to play accordingly like The Jungle Book, we're looking at a $105 million second weekend and a $333m 10-day cume. If we're being more realistic (there is a ton of buzzy flicks out there right now while Jungle Book only faced The Huntsman: Winter's War), expect an $80-$90m second weekend (-55% to -48%) for a still obscene $308-$318m 10-day total.

That $217.5 million six-day total ranks sixth behind The Dark Knight ($222m), Avengers: Age of Ultron ($227m), The Avengers ($257m), Jurassic World ($278m) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($363m). As of today, the film has outearned Cinderella ($201m) and will soon pass Oz: The Great and Powerful ($234m), Maleficent ($241m) and eventually Alice in Wonderland ($334m) and The Jungle Book ($364m). Oh, and it has now today surpass the entire lifetime gross ($218.9m) of the 1991 animated Beauty and the Beast.

Okay, that would be around $392 million adjusted for inflation, but give it a week or two, shall we? And the film has earned a whopping $244.1m overseas as well after a $21.9m Wednesday outside of North America. That gives the film a whopping $461.9m worldwide cume, making it already the biggest domestic live-action musical of all time (suck it, Grease!) and the second-biggest live-action musical worldwide behind only Mama Mia! ($609m). But, once again, give it a week or two.

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